And Then The Blizzard Came
by kitsuneasika
Summary: It's the night before Christmas, and there's a blizzard outside. Just perfect. PaulDawn.


**I do not own Pokemon, in any shape or form.**

I've only been posting to my fanfiction livejournal these days-- it's easier, really. But I figured, hey, it's Christmas. I should give the fans of my new favorite pairing some oneshots to read too.

Many thanks to cutiedogsapphire for looking over this. I'm not too happy with it, but oh well.

* * *

Dawn stared out of the window, seeing only flurries of white against a black background. The glass was freezing against her cheek, but she didn't move away. She heavily sighed.

"You know," Brock said from across the room. "It's probably not good for you to be doing that."

"Huh?" Dawn turned, startled out of her melancholy thoughts. Her cheek smarted from the sudden warmth. "What do you mean?"

"Staring out of the window and sulking," he replied. "You can't change the weather, and it's only going to make you more depressed." As he spoke he looked back down to his work. He was sewing up a tear in Ash's jacket. The trainer had gotten it when pulling off another crazy stunt in order to save Pikachu from Team Rocket earlier that day, and Brock had cheerfully taken on the job of fixing it. When Dawn asked him why, he had said that it reminded him of his family back home.

"Still," she said, "It's Christmas Eve, and there's a blizzard out there!" She gestured towards the window. "Shouldn't it be all nice and peaceful out there? This isn't right!"

"At least there's snow," Brock pointed out, finishing up on his task. He snapped the thread, and stood. "Maybe you should just go to bed. Things might be better when you wake up in the morning. That's what Ash did, anyways."

And everyone else, Dawn silently added. Despite herself, she smiled as she looked down at Piplup, fast asleep on her pillow.

"I'm not very sleepy," she said, standing. "But thanks anyway, Brock. You're right, I need a change of scenery. I think I'm going to walk around the Pokemon Center."

"That sounds good." Brock finished folding the jacket, and set it on top of Ash's bag. "I'm turning in, so good night."

"Night, Brock." Dawn walked over to the door, and stepped outside. "I'll be back soon."

She wandered down the hallway. It was quiet in the Pokemon Center, eerily so. The only sound was the howling of the storm outside, and even that was muted by the thick walls. No one was out except for her-- she supposed that she was the only one there that didn't decide to use the Ash method. She smiled at the thought.

She stepped out into the lobby and stopped, an involuntary gasp escaping from her lips. She had seen the Christmas decorations in there earlier that day, but in the dark of the night-- it was absolutely gorgeous. The walls were decorated with wreaths and bows. In the center of the room stood a large Christmas tree. Lights were strung around it, and beautiful ornaments decorated the branches. The overhead lights of the room were dimmed, allowing the lights on the tree to shine brilliantly. It was like a festive beacon to anyone unfortunate enough to be caught outside in the storm. Candy canes hung from each bough, and the tree's fresh pine scent filled the room. She breathed it in, her smile widening.

Brock was right, she decided. She really needed to get away from that awful window.

She slowly walked around the tree, admiring it thoroughly when her eyes caught sight of someone. She stopped mid-step. Apparently, she wasn't as alone as she had thought. There, sitting at one of the numerous empty tables lining the sides of the lobby, was Paul. A mug sat below him, steam rising from whatever drink was inside it. He took a sip of it, then set it down again as he flipped a page of the book he was reading.

She just stood there for a moment, not sure as to what she should do. She could always just walk away, she supposed, and go back to the room she was sharing with Ash and Brock to go to sleep. But something stopped. For whatever reason, she didn't iwant/i to walk away. There was no good reason not too, yet-- she couldn't bring herself to. Hence her hesitation.

She bit her lip. He didn't show any sign of even realizing that she was there, but this _was_ Paul she was dealing with. With him, you never knew. She let out a breath. Well, here goes nothing, she thought, and walked over to him.

She slid onto the bench on the opposite side of him, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

She made a frustrated sound. He didn't look up. She tapped her nails on the table. He turned a page. She cleared her throat, loudly. He took a sip of his drink.

Fine, she thought. I get it. I'll have to take the direct approach.

"Hey," she said, then stopped. What could she say? She really should have thought this out better. Her eyes landed on the mug, and she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "Where did you get that?"

He looked up. _Finally_, she thought. She didn't stop to wonder why it had been so important to her.

"Why should I tell you?"

She bit back a snappish retort, wanting nothing more then to smack that uncaring expression off of his face. "Because," she said through gritted teeth, "it's _polite_."

Instead of being even more infuriating, like she had expected, he actually replied. "Nurse Joy made it before she headed to bed, stupid girl."

"Hey!" she snapped. "I have a name!"

"So does everyone else. It doesn't mean I have to use it-- or remember it."

"Why you-- selfish, stuck-up jerk!"

"...Right."

"Argh!" Dawn slammed her hands down on the table. "You are _infuriating_!"

When he didn't reply, she found her temper cooling just as quickly as it had come. She took a deep breath to steady herself, then breathed out again. There. She was calm. Everything was fine again.

Well, except for the fact that the wind was now howling louder then a Houndoom out there. She frowned at the thought.

"Doesn't it bother you?" she asked, suddenly.

"You do realize that I can't read minds." He didn't look up from the book, but he did answer. And semi-nicely as well. She guessed it was an improvement.

"The blizzard." She gestured towards the doors. "Doesn't it bother you at all?"

"Not especially." He took another sip from the mug.

"Really?" Her surprise echoed through her voice. "I thought that you would hate it. I mean, it means you probably can't get an early start tomorrow and all that."

"Would I be up so late if I were planning to travel tomorrow?"

"You're not?" Get a grip, Dawn, she thought. Stop sounding so shocked.

"No. I'm not."

"Oh." She suddenly got it. "You're training your Pokemon, aren't you? And of course _you_ wouldn't care about the weather then." She stop smiling, her displeasure and scorn clear.

"No."

"What?"

"No, I don't plan to train my Pokemon either."

"W-why not?" She didn't notice how she was leaning forward, hands clasped together before her on the table.

"It is a holiday," he pointed out.

"I didn't think you would care," she said honestly.

"You thought wrong."

There really wasn't much she could say to that. She sighed, dipping her head head. "I doubt you're giving your Pokemon presents, though," she said after a moment.

"Why should I? It would just spoil them."

"There's a difference between actually being _nice_ to your Pokemon and spoiling them," she grumbled. Her heart went out for them. Next year, she decided, she was going to get his Pokemon something as well. How she was going to get it to them, when he was so dead set against it, she didn't know, but she would do it somehow.

"That's what you think. Not me." He returned to his book.

"You're being unusually talkative today." Dawn tilted her head, taking a closer look at him. "Usually you just ignore me."

"And you're not shutting up."

"Hey!" She scowled. "Just because you're unsociable doesn't mean everyone else in the world is. I'm just being nice."

"Then stop."

"You-- argh!" Dawn clenched her fists and leaned back, noticing for the first time how close she had been to him. Despite herself, she was blushing. Let him think it's because I'm angry, she silently begged. But her anger was quickly fading in lieu of embarrassment.

"You're terrible," she mumbled, looking away. Instead, she concentrated on the beautiful Christmas tree. A much better subject then _Paul._ What was she thinking, coming out here like this? She should have headed to bed the moment she saw him. She should be leaving right now, in fact.

Still, something made her stay. No matter how much she reasoned with herself, telling herself why she should leave, she couldn't bring herself to actually do so. She glanced back at Paul, expecting him to be reading again. But he wasn't. She turned bright red as their eyes met, and quickly looked away. For some reason she didn't want to admit, her heart was beating far too quickly.

"S-so you like Christmas?" she blurted out, wanting to talk about anything, anything at all to keep her mind from wandering down certain paths.

"I never said that."

"But you're taking a day off because of it." Her voice was a bit shaky-- she hoped he wouldn't notice. "That kinda says that you do. I mean, you're hardly the type to take random days off."

"I'm not like your friends, you mean." He closed the book, and set it aside. Dawn guessed that he realized that he wasn't going to get much reading done. Not with her talking to him all the time. She found herself smiling at the thought.

It took her a moment to realize that he had answered her. "Oh! Well, yeah. You're nothing like Ash and Brock. That's why I said that."

"Hn."

She found herself giggling, though she wasn't sure whether it was because of his expression or because of the thought of Paul acting like Ash. "Of course," she said, "Now that I think about it, you'd never admit it even if you did like Christmas."

Over the howling of the blizzard outside, she head the clock chime twelve. Dawn stood, stretching. "Wow," she said, lowering her arms. "It's pretty late. I should be heading to bed." She didn't really want to say it, but it was true. She clasped her hands together behind her back, swaying a bit. She looked at him expectantly.

"Do what you like." He wasn't looking at her.

She acted on impulse. She leaned down, and swiftly pecked Paul on the cheek. "Merry Christmas, Paul," she said softly, feeling hot and cold inside. He looked up at her, and she found herself grinning at his befuddled and shocked expression. "Good night!"

Feeling reassured, she turned and walked away, her heart singing as the world outside was covered in snow.


End file.
